Bill Goichberg and Continental Chess brought back the weekend open Swiss tournament to Schenectady this weekend past. On the 12th of June 48 players in three sections met at the Studio of Bridge and Games on Eastern Avenue for a four round Game in 40 contest.
It has been a couple of years since the long running Quads at the Studio ended. Incidentally, Norma Skelly the sparkplug who drove the Quads for so many years dropped in on the Schenectady Open and was warmly greeted by all. She was pleased to see a reasonable crowd for a chess event. It has been much longer an absence for weekend open events. I can’t recall the last such tourney in Schenectady. In the 1970s John Dragonetti ran one a month. After John’s retirement, the weekend open Swiss events were less frequent, down to a handful each year. In the 1990s they just about disappeared. Goichberg announced at the beginning of the last round that Continental Chess plans to return with another weekend event the end of October. Good news for chess players!
The top section of the Schenectady Open featured well established Experts and a couple of youngsters seeking glory. Patrick Chi, young but a solid Expert led the seeding list. Along with Chi were, Lou Petithory a well known correspondence master and OTB Expert, Mark Cote, another Western Mass. Expert, Stanislav Busygin, a Florida Expert/Class A player, and local strong guys, Gordon Magat, Michael Mockler, and Phil Thomas. David Finnerman, the Saratoga B captain played. He was stopped by Phil Thomas in round 1 but made a comeback in later play. Another rising star in the battle was Chen Qu who defeated Mockler in round three and Mark Cote in round four. Qu seems to have pulled ahead of Dilip Aaron in the competition for the next breakthrough by a youngster in Schenectady.
Patrick Chi won the Open section scoring 4 - 0. I don’t have the results for the other sections yet. I will publish them as they become available.
The game today is a win from the third round by Lou Petithory over Phil Thomas. This victory gave Lou a 3 - 0 score going into the fourth round and set up the clash with Patrick Chi for first place. Thomas has been no easy mark for Experts and masters, but this year has not been one of his best seasons. Here he misses a tactic and drops decisive material.
Petithory, Louis - Thomas, Phil [C11]
Schenectady Open Schenectady, NY, 12.06.2011
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 c5 6.dxc5 Bxc5 7.Qg4,..
Known stuff from the theory of the French. Famous names of old have tried this out as White; Lasker against Gunsberg, Pillsbury - Albin and Trassach - Marshall, all over one hundred years ago. More recently Fischer swindled Benko at the 1962 Candidates’ tournament after achieving a completely lost game. On balance, this is a move that is dangerous for both sides leading to sharp tactics.
7..., g6
The alternative is 7..., 0-0. In either event Black has equalized and then some according to theory.
8.Nf3 Nc6!?
Black keeps some advantage with 8..., Qb6. Failing to bear down on the tender points f2 and b2 give White the time to set to rights his position.
9.h4!?,..
Mr. Petithory looks for excitement. Safer is 9 Bd2.
9..., h5 10.Qh3 f5?!
Black can begin to achieve an advantage with 10..., Qb6; or possibly 10..., Nb4. I can not see why the pawn push to f5 has to be played now.
11.exf6?,..
This move justifies 10..., f5. Better for White is 11 Qg3, and 12 Bd2, with long castling to follow obtaining a measurable advantage. It could be the Game in 40 time control influenced both decisions; a game with lots of tactics is preferred by both parties in a game with such a time control.
11..., Nxf6 12.Bd3 Rg8 13.Qg3 Ng4 14.Rf1 Qf6?
If tactics are the aim, then 14..., Qb6; looks to be the way to introduce them. The text seems to have ideas of putting pressure on f4 as a motivator, and that is slower than necessary.
15.Bd2 Bd7?!
Black ignores the chance to obtain the two Bishops with 15..., Ne3. There’ll be no gathering of positional advantages today; get all pieces out and look for tricks, traps and shots is the order of the day.
16.0–0–0 0–0–0 17.Rde1 Bd6 18.Kb1 a6 19.Ne2 Nb4 20.Bc3 Qf8 21.Ne5 Nxd3
Black must have realized having the Bishop pair can’t be all bad. The game has been tending towards equality, and it continues along that path now, until..
22.cxd3 Qe7 23.Ba5 Rde8 24.Nd4 Kb8 25.Rc1 Rc8 26.Rxc8+ Bxc8?
Of the three alternatives Phil picks the only one to lose on the spot. My guess is he was perpetually worried about things on the g-file and just made a thoughtless move. If 26..., Rxc8; a more than adequate answer to 27 Nxg6, is 27..., Qf6. Or if 27 Nxg4 hxg4 28 Bc3 Rf8 29 Re1 Qf7 30 Ne2 Ka8 31 Qxg4 e5 32 Qg3 exf4; keeps things even. After the game move, White wins decisive material or more properly said; Black loses same.
27.Nec6+ bxc6 28.Nxc6+ Kb7 29.Nxe7 Bxe7
Two Bishops for a Queen and a pawn is not enough compensation.
30.d4 Bd7 31.Qb3+ Ka8 32.Bb6 Bb5 33.Rc1 Rb8 1–0
The game rolled on for a few move more until Lou administered checkmate.
The older Experts are full of tricks and the youngsters are well warned to check carefully.
Phil Ferguson and I are going to try to get a report together including photos. It will be interesting to see if we can figure out how to get the text and the art into the same post.
More soon.
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